Monthly Archives: May 2013

Wow it is Wednesday already! After a fantastic long weekend in Madrid with one of my besties, I am now back in (rainy) London once again. I will put some pictures of my trip on the blog in the next few days, or you can have a sneak peek already on Instagram if you follow me here – link. Today has been a bit scary but exciting day at the same time and for me this quote sums it up nicely!

The exciting news? Well, I officially gave notice to my current employer this morning because I have accepted a brand new challenging job that I will start in a month’s time! I have been working at the same company now for the last 2,5 years, and as much as I have enjoyed it here and I seriously love the people I work with; sometimes it is just time to get out of your comfort zone to set yourself a new challenge! I am really excited for this exciting change because as much as the comfort zone is, well comfortable, I know this is the right move for my career and I can’t wait for the new challenges, people and opportunities that will come into my life because of this change.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. So if you’re feeling uncomfortable right now,know that the change taking place in your life, is a beginning, not an ending” ~ Neale Donald Walsch

I’m a big fan of statement necklaces for an easy and fun way to jazz up a simple outfit. Recently I’d been lusting after a chunky gold chain link necklace, for a slightly more edgy look, so I was thrilled when I spotted this brass gold double stranded version at H&M the other day. I feel a piece like this can give everything from a basic t-shirt to a party-ready frock a shot of chic toughness. I love it!

Here I am wearing it with a simple grey knit top and a leather jacket.

This grey t shirt from ASOS is actually one of my favourite tops. I own it in both grey and white. It is super soft and I love its relaxed fit! You can get it here – link.

Monday is a bank holiday in the UK which makes it a long weekend. What that means for me? Packing!! Yes because I am off on a little three day city trip to Madrid with one of my best friends. Madrid has been on my list of places to visit for such a long time so I am very excited.

I love going away on holiday but one thing I can’t stand about travelling is packing. I am just terrible at it! I make lists to ensure I don’t forget anything but the main problem is that I always want to pack way too much. For this trip I am only going away for three days and I finally managed to narrow the suitcase down to about 15 outfits. Woops…..but hey c’mon a girl needs plenty of options right!?

We all have our travel essentials. Some of mine are: My passport (duh!) // my iPad so I can blog on the go and to have books, music, emails and internet at my fingertips // a small (coin) purse // my iPhone // Camera (taking the photo…) // Headphones

I love my Jimmy Choo Roma Glitter Coin Purse (link). It’s perfect for travelling because I mainly put the foreign currency in there plus it fits 1-3 cards so it’s nice and compact for travelling so I don’t need to take my (jammed full) usual wallet.

When travelling I can’t live without my favourite tunes! Spotify has been one of the best inventions ever and to enjoy my music when on the go I always take my Skull Candy headphones with me. I have two types of Skull Candy headphones; colourful Aviator headphones that I custom designed myself (link) and these smaller black on-ear navigator headphones (link). The sound is on them amazing, they are lightweight, easy to fold up, super comfortable to wear due to their leather touch memory foam ear pillows and it comes with a mic3 control which means you can take/make calls, control the volume, pause/play and track control with them.

Oh let’s not forget the cool skull detailing – LOVE!

What are some of your travel essentials?

So after making some last minute changes to my suitcase this morning (OK maybe I sneaked in another outfit option haha) I am finally all packed and ready to jet off to Madrid this evening!

As part of my 80/20 Diet I try to eat healthy most of the time, and therefore I am always trying to find great new recipes that are healthy but that also taste delicious. Now believe me, I very much like my carbs. I could never be one of those people that cuts out carbs from their diet altogether (for example I couldn’t live without my daily porridge) but I do try to limit my carbohydrate intake at dinnertime on my healthy days. Now what if I told you that you could eat as much pasta as you wanted without the carb guilt? Yes it’s true; let’s talk about Zucchini ‘Pasta’ shall we!

I was first introduced to the concept of zucchini pasta a few years ago by my good friend Tanya; a raw food guru who blogs over at Better Raw. As a raw foodie, Tanya had this amazing spiralizer machine at her house that turned zucchinis / courgettes super quickly into spaghetti! Ok so it is not really pasta but it is an amazing low carb substitute.

Over time I kept seeing zucchini noodles pop up on blogs, so I decided I needed to get myself a similar clever little gadget so I could make my own zucchini pasta. I found this great Gefu spiral cutter on Amazon and for £21.69 and it has been one of the best kitchen purchases I have made in a while!

So let me tell you how to make Zucchini Pasta in no time! First up you need to wash the zucchini. Now I leave the skin on my zucchinis, as I don’t mind the green colour plus it actually contains a load of fibre and nutrients but you can peel it if you don’t want it to look green and more pasta-like. Then I simply slice off the bottom of my zucchini and place it into my spiral cutter. I twist and twist and tada beautiful thick spaghetti looking ribbons will come out (whilst simultaneously discarding the seedy core in the middle). This spiral cutter can actually be used from both ends – the stripes on the side show you which side will give you thinner or thicker noodles.

If you don’t want to invest in one of these spiral cutters you can also make zucchini pasta with a julienne peeler, a mandoline or if you want to practice your knife skills, you can even finely slice the zucchini in ribbons by hand.

Once you have your beautiful zucchini pasta (I normally use about 1 or 2 medium sized zucchinis per person) there are lots of delicious ways to enjoy them! You can have them cold and raw (as part of a crunchy salad), you can quickly stir fry them with a tiny bit of oil or you place them in a microwave safe dish and heat them for about 2 minutes until they are warm and then serve them with for example your favourite pasta sauce! Do watch the ‘spaghetti’ closely when heating because you don’t want to overcook them, they will become soggy! You want them warm but still with a nice ‘al dente’ crunch ;)

I am now hooked and absolutely love eating zucchini pasta because it is such a great way to have a healthy, filling delicious low carb lunch or dinner. Soon I will share some more recipes on how I like to eat my Zucchini Pasta!

Is Zucchini ‘Pasta’ something you’ve heard of before, or would be keen to try?

On Sunday afternoon I went to the movies to see the new and highly anticipated Baz Luhrman film ‘The Great Gatsby’. I’d seen the previews and all the buzz surrounding the movie and actors made this a movie on my to-see list. The Great Gatsby is a romantic drama adaptation of the famous F. Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel by the same name. I actually never read the book so I had no real expectations of the story. I was a little worried I might not like the film because I seem to be one of very few people that never really liked (Baz Luhrman’s) Moulin Rouge.

This new adaptation of The Great Gatsby stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the young mysterious business magnate Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy, the object of his passion, and Tobey Maguire as Daisy’s cousin Nick, the outsider-insider through whose wondering narration the story is filtered. The setting for this vibrant movie is New York in the roaring 20s. Not having read the book I can’t really say if it does the original novel justice, but I actually enjoyed the movie very much.

I loved Leonardo in this film – he’s funny and dramatic at the same time and portrays the character of the mysterious Mr Gatsby really well. Oh and did I mention he’s so very handsome? ;)

This movie really re-sparked my love for the 20s era. After walking out of the cinema I really wanted to get dressed up in a stunning flapper dress and get dancing away at one of these amazing parties! The movie is certainly visually spectacular plus another thing I really liked about the movie was the soundtrack! Baz Luhrman hired American rap royalty Jay-Z as executive producer which gave the music a sexy and dangerous mood. The soundtrack has a mix of songs that blend of hip-hop, traditional jazz and other contemporary musical together. I have downloaded the soundtrack and these so far are my favourite songs:

– A Little Party Never Killed Nobody by Fergie, Q-Tip and GoonRock)
– Young & Beautiful by Lana Del Ray
– Over the Love by Florence and the Machine
– Into the past by Nero
– Bang Bang by Will.I.am
– Crazy in Love by Emili Sandé

I am a total Pinterest addict, so when they got in touch to see if I’d like to be involved in their Pin it Forward UK campaign to celebrate their official launch in the UK, I was more than happy to spread the love!

If you are not familiar with Pinterest yet then it’s about time you jumped on board! Pinterest is an online tool for collecting and organizing things that you love. It’s a bit like a virtual set of moodboards that you can continually add to without running out of space. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favourite recipes. You can ‘pin’ from other websites and clip images into Pinterest, or you can repin images that appear on your timeline from other pinners that you follow. Browsing other peoples pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share the same interests. These are some of my boards!

Recent updates to Pinterest now allow you to keep both public and private boards. Public boards can be seen by all Pinterest users, giving users the choice of searching for ideas within Pinterest itself, while private board can only be seen by people who are allowed to pin on that board. For example I may or may not have a secret wedding pinboard…ssshhhhh! Is that really bad seeing I am single? Haha!

Before the days of Pinterest, I used to collect pictures and clips from magazines and pile them into a notebook or pin them onto a cork board, or I’d bookmark many different websites to remember links to articles and images. Pinterest has made all this so much easier for me and what’s the best about Pinterest is that each image links back to its source, so with one click on the visual image it will take you back to details/link of the image as well! Amazing right?

The #pinitforward campaign means that over 30 days, 300 bloggers from the UK will be featuring their favourite Pinterest boards to give you some ideas of what fun and beautiful boards you can create yourself! One of my favourite boards has to be my Fashion Inspirations board where I pin images of street style fashionistas, bloggers and celebs outfits that that I love. The images always give me inspiration to create looks with items from my own wardrobe or to keep up to date with the fashion trends. Click on the link below to have a look at some of my favourite pinned fashion looks.

If you are already a Pinterest fan I would love to see your favourite boards. Link them up in the comments below and that way we can all take a look and follow each other. It’s a great way to find new and inspiring boards and pinners to follow. Happy pinning everyone!